Ciara Doyle has represented her club, county and college but is expecting Saturday’s county final to be one of the toughest encounters she will line out in.
“From the outset this year Scariff-Ogonnelloe’s sole focus was to qualify from the group. The first match was all we looked at when the draw was made and we never looked any further than Kilkishen/Bodyke. It was one game at a time. Now that we have qualified for the final we know that we are up against serious opposition and this will probably be one of the toughest matches we will ever play”, the centre back stated.
She disputes the label assigned to her as a key player on the Scariff/Ogonnelloe side. “Everyone is a key player. We have young players who have come on. We are very very lucky and privileged to be able to get out to play. Last year we got used to a lot of things being online and we just bought into it. We just made sure we were in the right condition when we got back to the field”.
Ciara believes that “Truagh-Clonlara are unlucky that they haven’t been in a number of finals in the last few years but our target now is to win the McMahon Cup and bring it back to East Clare. Last year we only got to the semi-final stage and we feel we left ourselves down. We are one of the best teams in Clare and we have the experience of having played in a Munster final but the girls in the Truagh-Clonlara team have played with Clare and they have been in a number of underage finals”.
Very little separates the two teams, the Bodyke native felt. “I think it’s fairly even between the two of us and I think it will go down to the wire and it won’t be decided until the final minutes”
A member of the Clare panel Ciara believes that “Clare camogie is not far away from a major breakthrough. Playing Cork in Páirc Ui Caoimh last year was huge, the first time in six years that we got to the quarter finals. It mightn’t have gone our way but the club scene is really coming on”.
For now “the focus is on Saturday and we are hoping we can get over the line. We will enjoy it as well. Hopefully we will get over the line and go on to represent Clare in the Munster championship”, she concluded
